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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510844">Official</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameRuth/pseuds/DameRuth'>DameRuth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bliss [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Multi, Pancreas-destroying sweetness, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 07:08:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510844</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameRuth/pseuds/DameRuth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor adopts an Earth custom, for Rose and Jack's benefit.  Shameless Bliss!verse mush.  Rose/Jack/Nine AU OT3, need I say more?</p><p>[Continuing the Teaspoon imports, original posting date 2007.06.09.]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness/Rose Tyler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bliss [14]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/14078</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Official</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Like I said, mush.  However, there will be references later on . . .</p><hr/>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Y’know, there’s still time to change your mind,” the Doctor told Rose, seriously, as his hand hovered over the controls.<br/>
<br/>
She stuck her tongue out at him and dropped her bag to the decking with a thump<br/>
<br/>
“We’re visiting my mum. So she can do my washing.”  Her tone was firm, and final.<br/>
<br/>
“You <i>could</i> just use the TARDIS facilities.”<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah, I know, like I usually do.  It’s an excuse to visit, an’ you know it.  Gives Mum something to do for me, and she loves it.”  She grinned.  “Sure a different tune than when I was livin’ there, lemme tell you.”<br/>
<br/>
“Look at it this way, Doc,” Jack said, from where he was sprawled across the entire jump seat.  “We’d better go see Jackie before your hair gets any longer, and she gets miffed about how we never visit, relatively speaking.”<br/>
<br/>
The Doctor’s hair had indeed grown considerably since their last visit to the Powell Estates.  It now reached down past his shoulders in an (artfully, Rose suspected) shaggy mane, slightly longer in the center back for a trailing V-shape down the back of his leather coat.  A few shorter strands around his face and ears still gave him something to rake back with his by-now-characteristic nervous gesture.<br/>
<br/>
Rose eyed the Time Lord critically as he made the last adjustments to the controls and pulled the lever that would cause them to materialize.<br/>
<br/>
“Maybe we could get Mum to give you a trim while we’re there,” she suggested.  “She used to do hair — professionally, I mean.”<br/>
<br/>
“No!” the Doctor told her sharply, with a snap of force down their empathic link that raised Rose’s eyebrows.  More evenly, and without the psionic additions, he qualified, “I don’t intend t’ cut it.”<br/>
<br/>
Rose traded a glance with Jack behind the Doctor’s back.  He gave a half shrug.<br/>
<br/>
The TARDIS set them down, then with hardly a jar, and Rose patted the console affectionately.<br/>
<br/>
“Good girl!” she said.  “<i>You</i> like visiting my mum!”<br/>
<br/>
The Doctor was already at the door.<br/>
<br/>
“C’mon then!’ he called.  “’Soonest begun, soonest done.’”<br/>
<br/>
Rose slung her bag of laundry over her shoulder, Jack rolled off the jump seat, and they followed.<br/>
<br/>
. . . To almost bump into the Doctor just outside the door.  He seemed to be paused, thinking.<br/>
<br/>
Rose reeled andrecovered, both from stopping her own forward movement and from Jack bouncing off her laundry bag from behind.<br/>
<br/>
“Blimey, give a little warning when you do that,” Rose told him, half-annoyed and half apologetic.  “You’re worse’n a cat sometimes.”<br/>
<br/>
The Doctor didn’t reply.  Instead, he reached into the pocket of his leather coat, and told Rose, “Hold out your hand.”<br/>
<br/>
She blinked, but extended her right hand obediently.<br/>
<br/>
“No, your other hand."<br/>
<br/>
She shifted her laundry, and held out her left hand.<br/>
<br/>
The Doctor supported her palm with one hand and with the other gently slid a ring onto Rose’s third finger.<br/>
<br/>
“There,” he told her, gentle-gruff.  “That’s doing it proper.  Thought you should have something to show your mum.”<br/>
<br/>
Completely dumbfounded, Rose looked down.  The ring was smooth, plain gold set with a single solitaire stone the size of her smallest fingernail.  She turned her hand slightly, and the dim sunlight of the overcast day shattered into a billion blue-white points in the stone’s facets.  It looked very strange on her hand, against the prosaic background of the Estates’ dull tarmac.<br/>
<br/>
“That’s a Denebian white topaz,” the Doctor told her.  “One stone in ten thousand has the chemical impurities for refraction like that.  Ten times rarer’n a diamond, so don’t go letting Jackie give you chaff over the size . . .”<br/>
<br/>
He broke off with a <i>hoof!</i> as Rose gave him a very solid, if one-armed hug.<br/>
<br/>
“Thank you!” she said, laughing, and a little misty-eyed.  “Where'd you get it?”<br/>
<br/>
He shrugged, pleased by her reaction, and attempted to give her a suave smile that just came out a little goofy instead.  “Got it from a Denebian princess, if you must know.  Saved her life, and she wanted t’ marry me, but I wasn’t havin’ it.  So, she gave me her ring, ‘n’ said I should give it to whoever I <i>did</i> marry. I took it to be polite, but here we are after all.”  he shrugged.  “Good thing you two have the same hand size.”<br/>
<br/>
Jack looked over Rose’s shoulder.  “Pretty,” he commented.  Then: “What, nothing for me?”  The words were lightly spoken, but he didn’t fool either of his companions, even without the link.  Jack’s life had been a long list of lonely betrayals; even with his new family, the scars were still healing.<br/>
<br/>
The Doctor fixed him with a sharp glare.  “Right, Captain, as for you . . .”  He wiggled his fingers commandingly, and, surprised, Jack held out his hand.<br/>
<br/>
The ring the Doctor slid onto Jack’s third finger was heavy white metal — platinum or white gold, Jack thought dimly, with an amateur appraiser’s reflexes — set with a flat, circular piece of black onyx, carved signet-style into a vaguely Celtic circle-and-figure-eight symbol.  He recognized it with a shock — it was very old, and very rare.<br/>
<br/>
“Now, that’s a family heirloom,” the Doctor told him, glowering from beneath drawn-down brows.  “Don’t you go losin’ it, or pawnin’ it, or bettin’ it in a card game . . . “<br/>
<br/>
Rose cupped Jack’s hand, studying the ring intently then looked up and grinned at Jack who was still staring at the Doctor in something like shock.  Jack lifted his hand from Rose’s, looked at the ring, and then closed his fist tightly.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh, please,” he said, still lightly, and still fooling nobody.  “Give me a little credit.  I wouldn’t go betting it unless I had a sure thing.  An outside straight, at the least.”<br/>
<br/>
The Doctor rolled his eyes.  Then he gave them both his bright, ear-to-ear grin.<br/>
<br/>
“C’mon then.  Let’s not keep Jackie waitin’ — and y’aren’t gonna hear me say that often.”<br/>
<br/>
--<br/>
<br/>
When Jackie Tyler answered her door, she was greeted by the sight of Rose and Jack, side-by-side, both holding out their left hands for inspection in the time-honored fashion, while the Doctor lurked behind them, looking pleased and a trifle defensive at the same time.<br/>
<br/>
Jackie’s delighted, ear-splitting squeal roused her startled neighbors for two doors in either direction.<br/>
</p>
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  <span></span>
</p><p><span class="u">Disclaimer:</span>  All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners.  The original characters and plot are the property of the author.  No money is being made from this work.  No copyright infringement is intended.<br/>
<br/>
This story archived at <a href="http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=13042">http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=13042</a></p><p>
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